TCPA settlement: Clippers fans want tickets, not texts

The Los Angeles Clippers are in the news again: this time for an ill-advised promotional text message marketing campaign. Fans filed a class action suit against the pro basketball team in February 2013, after the team sent them text messages without the fans’ express written consent to receive them, in violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). The case was brought in the Central District of California and captioned Friedman v. LAC Basketball Club, Inc., 2:13-cv-00818-CBM-AN.

In the complaint, it was alleged that while attending a Clippers game, plaintiffs learned they could send messages directly to the scoreboard from their phones by texting a designated number. The announcement alerting them of this fact, however, did not disclose that the Clippers would store the numbers and subsequently use them to advertise promotions. According to the plaintiffs, therefore, when they received promotional text messages from the Clippers, this violated the TCPA’s rules against text messaging consumers who do not first expressly opt in to receive the texts.